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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26065696">The Strength Within</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xinngabriells/pseuds/Xinngabriells'>Xinngabriells</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:00:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,769</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26065696</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xinngabriells/pseuds/Xinngabriells</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Talysin is an average woman, going about her life, working, having fun with friends and family.  Until the day that things happening in her world start throwing her onto a path she never wanted to walk.  Now she will do anything to see it through to the end.<br/>Some people are born to be leaders, others are born to protect and serve…<br/>Then there are those who are in the wrong place at the right time…<br/>To save the world</p><p>Future Fic</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The soft pinks and oranges of the coming dawn start moving across the ceiling of soft white, through the open window. A soft breeze brings in the smell of dew and growing things and the mild scent of spring blooms.  The light reaches the wall and starts reflecting off a variety of crystals, hanging from a mobile, and sending the light into a shower of sparkling rainbows all around the room. The bright rainbow beams land on books, bounce off the mirror, and spin in lazy circles across tables and walls.   As the light grows, brightening the room, Talysin sits with her back braced against the headboard and slowly sips her coffee.  Her black hair shines with blue highlights as the light dances in the breeze.  Eyelids slip closed over green irises as Taly takes a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh.  It’s her favorite part of the day, watching the sun bring warmth and life to her world. Curled up by her feet is a small, black and white dog who keeps one eye on her while still pretending to be asleep.  She smiles and takes a few more deep breaths before drinking another sip out of her mug.</p><p>Talysin finishes off her coffee by the time the sun is fully above the horizon and stretches before getting out of bed. She chooses a deep green shirt and black utility pants and takes a few minutes to get ready for the day.  As she walks through her bedroom door she taps her thigh twice and the little dog hops down and happily trots after her. He follows her down the stairs, then walks over to a shelf filled with shoes and grabs a pair, before dropping them by a bench near the door. Talysin follows after him and quickly puts on her shoes. “Come on, Seanan.” she says quietly, and they head out the door. </p><p>They take the lift down to the agora and Talysin motions Seanan to go run and he takes off.  She starts jogging around the sand path through the well tended trees, bushes, and flowers, enjoying the early morning air blowing through her long hair. It’s the first day in a month that there hasn’t been rain misting in from the opening over fifty meters above her.  The sun was just barely coming in over the lip of the opening and bouncing its light around the shaft to the garden below.  In the garden it was still very cool and dark but as Talysin continued jogging she was already warming up quite a bit. Her feet were only lit by the lights placed on the ground at intervals around the path she was on, so the natural beauty around her was mostly still in shadow.</p><p>After about 15 minutes she hears steps coming up behind her and turns her head to spot her best friend, Kerrigan, gaining on her. Kerri’s curly red hair is bouncing around her head with every step, almost causing Talysin to giggle. She slows down a bit to let Kerri catch up and as she comes close, says through a smile, “Running a little late this morning, are we?”</p><p>Kerri rolls her eyes and bumps her shoulder into Talysin, “Yeah, but not for what you think.  Jerry was being a jerk this morning, going on about how his brother wants to be placed in the programming unit. I keep telling him it’s not up to me where Caleb gets placed and he knows it, but he won’t let it go,”  she shakes her head a little, causing her hair to bounce crazily again. “Hopefully Caleb gets his assignment soon so Jerry will relax,” she says with a huff.</p><p>Talysin nods, “Yeah, Caleb finished all of his course work last month, right? He should be placed any day now. How did he score? Would he even be able to go into programming?” They are starting the second mile now and Seanan pops out from a bush to run beside them for a while before darting off again to jump in the pond. The forest is starting to light up more as the sunlight from above begins reflecting down the shaft.</p><p>Stopping for a moment to catch her breath and watch Seanan swim, the red head says, “He scored well.  He should be able to go into whichever tech he wants, but Jerry is a little crazy and protective over his little brother. You know?” She starts stretching out her calves and bending to loosen up her muscles. “I don’t have time for a full run this morning, though. We’re trying to get the new routing schedules for the autoports finished.”</p><p>Taly has stopped as well, watching her friend go through her cool down and starting her own. “Alright, I was hoping to go to work for a few hours today anyway. I just feel like being out in the forest since the weather has finally turned.” Talysin takes another deep breath then calls for Seanan. He swims out of the pond, shaking water in every direction, before dropping a stick at her feet.  She picks it up and tosses it back down the path making Seanan run as fast as his little legs can go.  Talysin and Kerry walk together back down the path that leads to the lifts.  Heading back up the 7th floor where Taly’s family lives, the girls say their goodbyes as Kerry continues up the lift.</p><p>When Talysin gets back inside she sees that her brother and grandmother are up and having coffee on the balcony.  She fixes herself a cup and walks out to join them, kissing her grandmother’s head before sitting on her brother’s lap. “Morning, Noni. How did you sleep?” she asks while trying to stay on her brother’s quickly shifting lap and trying not to spill her coffee.  Kaldon, Talysin’s brother, says, “Get off, Taly,” and keeps bouncing his legs and pushing her hips until she finally relents and slips off to sit on another seat next to him laughing.  </p><p>Leah chuckles behind her mug as she watches the twins play.  She never gets tired of watching her grandchildren even though they are all past their placements now.  “I slept very well, dear. I had the most wonderful dream that your grandfather came to visit me again.  I always wake up refreshed after I get to see him.” Noni sighs and closes her eyes with a smile on her face.</p><p>Talysin smiles, only a little wistfully. “Well I’m happy for you, Noni.  I’m so glad he is waiting for you before starting his next cycle.” </p><p>Her grandparents were one of those lucky few who actually find that other half of themselves.  It was a step beyond love and it was amazing to behold.  Simon had died 3 years ago and Leah had never really been the same since.  At first they didn’t think she was going to survive the separation.  The whole family understood though, and they tried to make her happy and made sure she was taking care of herself, but they knew she wasn’t really there. Then one morning she woke up and rushed into her son’s room talking about Simon as if he’d been right there with her through the night. Her excitement was infectious because she was present again. Leah explained that Simon told her to enjoy their family enough for the both of them for as long as she could and he would always be with her in her dreams. Since then more often than not Simon would visit and Leah would have a new sense of purpose and peace the next day. Now she was just waiting for her time to come where they would be reunited but in a way that still allowed her to take joy in every day.</p><p>After a while of silence where they are enjoying their coffee, they are joined by Kayla, their cousin, and Taly’s mom and dad, Aunt Lyda and Baylin, another cousin.  Everyone is enjoying a rousing conversation about the newest antigrav speeders that are available to play at the Arcade and laughing about Taly’s last miserable date.</p><p>Dathen, Talysin and Kaldon’s father, finishes his cup and stands to take it to the kitchen, patting Kal’s shoulder and kissing Taly on the head as he walks past.  Dathen is a member of the Servant Soldiers, the members of society sworn to protect and serve, and unlike most positions where you made your own schedule, he was required to work a pre-planned shift.  The SS had been required to work more hours than usual lately as well, because of the disappearances that started a few months ago. As he climbed the stairs heading for his bedroom, Talysin notices, again, the look of worry he’s been trying to hide on his face. </p><p>Taly left shaking her head as she walked towards the door.  “I’m gonna go to work for a while, guys.  Oh, and if you decide what you want for dinner let me know and I’ll pick it up on the way home.”  Calls of ‘Have a good day’ and ‘Love you’ follow her out the door.  She took the lift down to the second floor, thinking the whole way down.  She knew something more was going on with the disappearances than her dad was able to tell them and that left her with an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach.</p><p>When she walked through the doors to the hanger, the first person who spotted her was her boss, Jodan.  Jodan was classically hansom with an almost perfectly symmetrical face, strong chin, and dark blond wavy hair. As soon as he saw Taly he jogged over to her. “Hey, I didn’t know you were coming in today!” he said, when he got in range, his hazel eyes lighting up. Talysin just shook her head at his exuberance.  Always the perkiest person she knows, Jodan had been her best friend since she got her placement with the Rangers. He just wouldn’t take no for an answer. With him being 3 years older than Talysin, who was 21, she would have thought he could have learned some restraint but alas, no. </p><p>Taly smiled at him as he threw an arm over her shoulders, “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to be out in the forest now that the rains have let up a little. Make sure everyone is okay out at the campsites.  So, how was your date last night?” </p><p>If it was possible, Jodan’s face lit up even more, “Oh let me tell you. That is one amazing man. He took me out to the Island for dinner and dancing. Absolutely perfect. And at the end of the night he gave me this,” he holds up his wrist to show her a bracelet made of intricately woven wire with beads set in a random pattern. It was beautiful. </p><p>“Wow, seems he might be getting serious.  He certainly has some skill to make that so beautifully. Looks like he put a lot of time into it.” she said with a sly smile.  She always teased Jodan because his relationships tended to be like high flame candles, burning bright and hot and ending quickly. But this time, this time seemed to be different.  Jodan was just as exuberant as usual but there was a firmness in his voice when he started to talk about Kenneth, like the man hung the moon and stars.  “I’m glad things are going so well. You guys are super cute together and I can tell he really cares.” Jodan just smiles hard enough to break his jaw.</p><p>Once they make their way over to the runners, Talysin throws her leg over the seat and starts checking levels and gauges while Jodan unhooks tie downs and the power supply. When Jodan has everything disconnected he pats her back and walks back over to the office with a wave over his shoulder.</p><p>Talysin grins as she throttles up to hover about 3 feet off the ground and steers out of the hangar and into the forest.  Feeling the wind whipping through her hair and the dappled sunlight streaming all around her always made her feel alive, almost like her entire body was tingling from the freedom she felt.  This is why she had applied to be a Ranger. Besides loving nature and not wanting to be in a position inside all the time, she felt the most free when she was flying through the forest at 85 kph.  </p><p> After spending thirty minutes just enjoying herself, Talysin pushes the switch for the dash map and it blinks into her periphery.  Out of the twenty two campsites in her jurisdiction, only five were currently in use according to the map. She told the computer what order she wanted to check the sites and it shifted the map to an unobtrusive position so she could still check it if needed but not impede her vision.  Heading down the trail to the first site, Talysin kept scanning the forest, keeping alert for anything that would require her attention.</p><p>It was on a day like this, just another routine patrol, which she had found Seanan.  She’d flown by a downed tree that was blocking part of the road, and landed to investigate and report to Jodan that she needed a crew out to remove it.  She was on her comm describing what she was seeing to Jodan when she heard some squeaks coming from the direction of the upturned roots.  When she got closer she saw that part of the base of the tree had been hollowed out by rot and is probably the reason the tree fell, but now, lying in the upturned earth were five very young puppies and an exhausted looking mama pinned down by roots across her legs. Taly told Jodan to hurry and get a vet out to her and ran back to her runner to get the med kit and a laser cutter.  Making her way back over to the dogs, she approached the mother carefully so as not to spook her and trigger a protective response. Talysin gave the mother a low sedative and then used the laser to carefully cut her legs free and back away so mama could inspect her pups.  When Jodan arrived with the crew and vet they found Taly sitting with the mothers head in her lap and one of the puppies cradled in her arms while the others nursed.  Other than a few weeks during the weaning process, she had had Seanan ever since. </p><p>Talysin smiled at the memory as she slowed near the first site.  After setting the runner down, she greeted the family who were going to be staying for at least a week according to their itinerary,  and let them know if they needed anything they just needed to contact Patrol and a ranger would be out to assist.  Taly wished them a fun trip and headed out to the next sites, where another family of four were staying for 2 days, a couple on their honeymoon were staying for a week, another family of six, and a class of 8 year olds who were out for learning how to survive in the forest.</p><p>After dropping in on all the sites to make sure none of them needed anything she turned back on the trail that would lead to Town Ash, her home.</p><p>The day had warmed up considerably and Taly was enjoying the warm sun on her back as she crested the last hill before home.  A sense of contentment came over her as she looked at the 20 story tall ziggurat like structure.  Windmills dotted terraces and covered the lower levels and the outward facing walls sparkled when the solar panels caught the light of the sun.  Talysin loved her Town. With a population of over thirty thousand she didn’t know everyone, of course, but they still all felt like family.  The parties they had almost every weekend brought everyone together and allowed meetings between people who didn’t normally cross paths.  </p><p>Talysin smiled and she headed her runner towards home and drove up into the hanger.  She took her time making sure the connections for her runner were all secure before heading over to the timing terminal to upload her logs.  As long as they were posted in the system, every ranger would be able to see logs and requests from her sector.  She didn’t see Jodan anywhere. “Probably got called out to a site,” she thought to herself.  She checked the logs for any emergencies but none seemed to be showing an alarm.  She was half way through today’s logs when she heard muffled noises coming from the supply closet door near the offices. Pulling her laser cutter off her belt she quickly moved to the door and ripped it open.</p><p>Standing in the dark up against the shelves were Jodan, eyes wide and mouth hanging open, and Kenneth looking more than a little embarrassed. Taly grins evilly at them, chuckles and slams the door closed again before succumbing to a fit of giggles.  “Never a dull moment,” she thinks to herself.</p><p>She hears the door open again behind her and tries to school her features into a disapproving look.  Jodan may be her boss but its still fun to tease him.  She feels a hand grab her shoulder and pull her to a stop.  </p><p>“Sorry about that.  He stopped by to bring me lunch and you know how it goes.” Jodan said with a smirk. He had a sheepish grin as he turned to the door he had just exited when he saw Kenneth stepping out of the closet as well.</p><p>“At least you weren’t in the office but you should be more careful, Jodan. What if there had been an emergency and you weren’t here to take the call.” Talysin said with a small amount of scolding.  She didn’t begrudge him the fun.  More often than anyone would care to admit, it happened.  One time she’d even caught a young couple at it on one of the lifts, but while you were on shift, it wasn’t as easily excused. “Just keep it together until your replacement gets here, ok?”</p><p>Jodan’s grin becomes a little brittle, but then he nods understanding.  Talysin could just report him but she wouldn’t.  “Yeah, I hear you. Thanks for the reminder.”  Jodan turns back to look at Kenneth again to see if they’re being watched.  “He is so hot, though. How am I supposed to be strong around that!” he hisses at her.</p><p>“Then send him home,” she hisses back, but her eyes are happily dancing with mirth as she thinks of all the fine teasing she’ll have as ammunition. “Anyway, I gotta go.  I’m hoping for a relaxing evening, just catching up on the news vids. Bye Kenneth,” she tosses over her shoulder with a wave.</p><p>She checks her messages as she walks out of the hangar and sees a note from Baylin saying the majority vote was stir fry chicken and there would be seven for dinner.  She turns left at the next corridor and walks in the direction of the Grocer. She walks in to the spacious market and takes a quick glance around.  “Not many people here today,” she thinks to herself.  Only eight other people were in the room that normally was packed with lots of people lined up at the twenty terminals around the edges of the room.  Each terminal had a conveyor belt that came from the rows of food in the center.  Isles for meat, dairy, carbohydrates, and fruits and vegetables occupied the majority of the market area and when an order was entered, the automated arms grabbed the items and brought them to the correct station. </p><p>Taly grabs a basket and walks over to a clerk station.  She takes a few minutes to type in her dish and number of diners.  A few minutes later chicken, rice, and vegetables start coming down the conveyor belt towards her station and a packet of sauce and of seasonings drop down a little chute in front of her.  Taly gathers up the items and places them all in her basket.  She waves to the attendant at the front on her way out and he waves back cheerfully.  She hums to herself as she rides the lift back up to the 7th floor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, Taly is sitting on the love seat, with her back to the window, in the family room.  Sunlight poured in the floor to ceiling windows and lighting up the comfortable seating area.  Leah sits in one of the recliners facing the window and listening to the smooth jazz playing through the speakers overhead. Talysin is scrolling through her vid feeds, sharing some of the best articles with Noni when there’s an S.O.S. pop-up on her screen.  Flicking it open quickly, she scanned the message and relaxed when she saw it was from Kerri. Talysin rolled her eyes and read through it.  Kerri wanted her to come to her room for “An urgent issue.”  <br/>Taly knew that was code for “Jerry is driving me nuts, come distract me.” Either that or she had ordered too much chocolate again.<br/>Hoping for the latter Taly said to Leah, “I’ve gotta go rescue Kerri again.  You need anything before I go, Noni?”  Taly stands up and pockets her halo-vid, then stretches her arms over her head and stands on her tiptoes.  With a low groan she drops her arms back to her sides and heels back to the ground.<br/>Leah shakes her head with her eyes still closed, “No, thank you. I’ll just enjoy the quiet.  It’ll be the first day this week I can have the house to myself.  Go ahead, Hun.” And she continued swaying her toes to the sultry rhythm. <br/>Talysin grinned to herself and walked to get her shoes.  Seanan hopped down out of the chair where he’d been sunning himself and trotted over to Taly.  She scooped him up and planted kisses all over his head while he licked at her nose, “Ok, Sweet boy.  You be good for Noni today, yeah?”  She set him back down and put on her shoes before walking out the door.  <br/>The lift ride up was quick and in no time she was at the door to her friend’s apartment.  Kerri shared a pod with Jerry and since it was just the two of them they had one of the smaller units.   She knocked twice as warning then let herself in.  Taly walked into the kitchen and looked around but no sight of the redhead.  She moved around the counter bar and into the living room and saw Kerri through the open bedroom door tossing bedding around and messily straightening up.  <br/>“Hey,” she called out, stepping tentatively up to the door.  Taly leaned against the door jam and looked at her friend who had swiveled around with a murderous glare.  When Kerri saw her standing there the glare disappeared but the furious fluffing of pillows continued.<br/>The redhead growled, “He’s so stupid, Taly.  What the hell is his problem? Better yet, why the hell am I staying if this is his reaction?  It’s not like I have any control, whatsoever, on the outcome, but he keeps pushing.” She finished making the bed then turned around and flopped down onto the cover, arms spread out to either side.  It looked like she was on the verge of screaming or crying from the emotions flitting across her face.  <br/>Taly walked in and sat down beside her on the bed, then reached over and patted her knee.  “You guys are great together, you know that.  He’s just wound up over Caleb but that’ll be over in no time and he’ll go back to being your mellow hunk.  Don’t let it get to you,” she said with a sympathetic smile.  “Tell ya what, let’s go to the Arcade today?  Blow off some steam, have a few drinks, and laugh until it hurts.  You’ve been working too much lately on that new project and coming home to too much tension.  You need a break.”<br/>Kerri bounced up so quickly she almost smacked Taly in the head.  Talysin dodged out of the way just in time to avoid her arm as she leapt off the bed and did a little happy dance.  The amount of energy that Kerri lived every moment of every day made Taly’s head spin, never quite able to keep up.<br/>“Yes!! I haven’t been in ages. What a great idea, Taly. Let’s go.” Kerry reached out and grabbed Talysin’s hand and started to tug, while Taly laughed.<br/>Talysin allowed herself to be dragged through the apartment and out the door, stopping only long enough to grab Kerri’s id on the way out.</p><p> </p><p>The maglev to the nearest Arcade, High Life, only took twenty minutes.  As they stepped off the train and into the warm air on the platform, they both took in a deep breath.  Nothing ever smelled quite the same as an Arcade.  The mix of unhealthy food cooking, salt water, and hints of sweetness all over-layered with the distinctive scent of people, combined to be overwhelming at first.  The Arcade was the best place to get carried away, whether that is with games and contests or athletics or just finding someone to hide away with for a while.  Arcades were generally slightly smaller than the buildings that made up Towns, but only because they comprised only seven levels instead of twenty. The variety of entertainment available in each Arcade was astonishing and had something for almost everyone. <br/>The girls walked down the causeway with all the others who came to have fun.  They walked into registration and scanned in their I.D.s to check in.  After that they were free to enjoy themselves.<br/>Talysin turns to Kerri and opens her arms out to her sides, “Alright, where to first?”<br/>The redhead taps her chin a few times while she’s thinking. She turns her head left and right looking at the scrollers that display the directions to different attractions.  Finally she spots one that catches her interest because her eyes open wide and mouth forms a perfect O.  Giving one little hop of excitement she grabs Taly’s hand and hurries off down a corridor to their left, saying over her shoulder, “This way.”<br/>She leads them to the Battle Arena, where you can choose weapons and costumes and then go experience an adventure.  Kerri picks out some leather armor and a sword and goes into a changing room.  <br/>Talysin takes a little longer to decide what she wants to wear.  Based on Kerri’s choices they were going to be doing some deep history or fantasy battle, but without even a clue as to era she doesn’t know what to pick.  She chooses leather pants and a leather vest with a soft long sleeved undershirt and a staff and goes to change.  When she exits the changing room, Kerri is standing there almost vibrating with excitement.<br/>“Hurry up, Taly,” Kerri says with a wide grin.  “One of the guys at the office was talking about how his last adventure was accepted by the gaming board and that the opening day was a huge success.  We’ve gotta try it.”  She walks over to the terminal and keys up the correct program.<br/>When the doors open and they step in, they’re greeted with a lush jungle and humid air.  The NPC shows up to give the story and rules, and by the end of his speech both girls are ready to go have fun. <br/>After they have defeated the Slave Overlord and rescued the people he was using for his tyrannical needs, they walk back out of the room and over to the changing rooms.  Talysin notices another couple heading into the room across from where they’d been and gives a wave as they glance at her and Kerri.  Talysin pauses mid-wave when she locks eyes with the blonde across the room.  It’s only for a moment, but Talysin thinks to herself, “Wow!” before stepping into the changing room to don her own clothes again.<br/>Talysin and Kerri walk out of the Battle Arena sharing their perspectives on the game and take one of the lifts up to the dining plaza on the fourth floor.  They’d spent quite a bit of time and energy on their adventure and they were starving.  <br/>Talysin walks over to one of the tables and sits down.  She crosses her legs and draws her ebony hair up into a loose ponytail to get it off her overheated neck.  “Ok, that was definitely amazing but I am beat.  I think I pulled something when we scaled that rampart,” Taly said with a wince.  She reached over her own shoulder to rub the muscle over her shoulder blade. <br/>Kerri looked at her friend in a little concern.  “You didn’t tell me you’d actually hurt yourself!  We should have stopped,” the redhead exclaims in exasperation, “but I did enjoy watching you take on those last twelve goons at the end. I’ve never seen you move that fast. And now that I know you were hurt I’m even more impressed.”  Kerri picks up the order menu and taps in her order before handing it to Talysin.<br/>“Yeah, I guess I needed to fight through some of my pent up frustrations,” she says with a wry quirk of her lips.  She thought about some of the dreams she’d been having lately.  Always dark and full of dread but then someone takes her hand and the shadows disappear and leave her standing alone in an empty room.  Very strange.  Talysin shakes her head to clear out the images before entering her own order and setting the pad down.  When she looks back up at Kerri she sees worry in her eyes and knows she will have to tell her friend at least a little about what’s bothering her.<br/>With a sigh and a shake of her head Talysin says, “It’s not a big deal. Just having some weird dreams that are really indistinct and … well … weird.  I don’t remember anything but feeling scared and then someone taking my hand.  Then I wake up.  I had it again last night, so I guess it was on my mind.”  Talysin shrugs one shoulder and rests her chin in her other hand.<br/>Kerri reaches over and curls her fingers around Taly’s arm.  “Well, if it starts to get to you, I’m always here.  Hey, I have an idea!  How about after lunch, we go to the SPA then hang out at the pool until they kick us out?” the redhead asks, hoping to lighten the mood again.  <br/>Talysin looks relieved and nods her head.  She’s glad that Kerri is letting it drop.  Something about the dreams made them feel personal, even private.  Taly turns her head when she hears someone walk up to their table.  The server delivers their food and makes sure they have everything they need before leaving them to their meal. <br/>Taly picks up her chili bacon burger and takes a big bite, letting the flavor of the onions and peppers add to the perfection of the beef.  She sets the burger down and chews while leaning forward on her elbows. She looks up at Kerri and says, “Back to what you were saying. That idea sounds great.  I could really use a rubdown and relaxing.  I can’t believe I went all out after pulling something in my back.”<br/>Kerri nods while still chewing her rotisserie chicken.  “Yeah, let’s do it.”<br/>After they finish their lunch they head up to the rooftop where the SPA and pools are located.  They get messages and then go swimming until almost sunset.  Pleasantly tired and now much more relaxed, the two friends shower off and dress before going back down to the exit to the platform that will take them home.<br/>When they reach the gate though, there is a crowd of people and they can see several Servant Soldiers talking to different groups.  Talysin and Kerri walk over to one of the groups that are standing nearby to find out what’s going on. “Excuse me,” Kerri says to a woman who had her back to them, “do you know what’s happening?”<br/>The woman turned to face the two and they saw that she was upset, either with worry or fear they couldn’t tell.  “It’s terrible.  A couple has disappeared.  A man and woman were supposed to meet their friends at the café at lunch time but they never showed up.  The Servants have been looking for them ever since,” she explained with a slight tremor in her voice. She motioned behind her to the rest of her group and said, “We were about to leave when they asked everyone to stay so they could find out where they were last seen.”<br/>Talysin felt that heavy feeling in her gut again.  This was madness.  Why were people randomly vanishing?  Never, for as long as she could remember, had anything like this happened.  Certainly every now and then someone would forget to bring their GPS with them when they went hiking but they always turned up again soon.  But this?  She knew there hadn’t been any disappearances in this area yet, and now that there had been everyone, would get even more on edge since it happened in their proverbial back yard.  She shared a weighted look with Kerri before moving over to one of the Servants.<br/>“Hey, is there anything I can do to help? I’m with the Ranger service at Town Ash and would be happy to help with the search.” she said with urgency.  She noticed a static-vid in his hand showing what she assumed was the couple who had disappeared.  Recognition flared when she saw the blonde from earlier at the Battle Arena. “I remember seeing them! They were starting a game at the Battle Arena when my friend and I were leaving ours.  That was around mid-day.” <br/>The servant turns her whole attention onto Talysin quickly.  “We’ve looked all over the Arcade and haven’t found them anywhere so at least that will give us a place to start.  Thank you.  Do you remember which room they went in?”  She and Talysin start walking to the lifts to go back up to the Battle Arena.<br/>Talysin nods and replies, “Absolutely, they were right across from us.”  <br/>When they exit the lift they both jog towards the last place the couple had been seen and enter that room.  After a thorough search of the room the only thing they found in the room other than what was meant to be there was a crushed leaf blown into a corner. <br/>Talysin put her hands on her hips and continued to scan the walls and ground, even knowing she wouldn’t see anything new.  She turned to the Servant, Haria, and said “Would it be ok if I took a runner and looked around outside?  I know I’m not part of the patrol here but I want to keep searching.”<br/>Haria shook her head and crossed her arms. “No they’ve been checking the perimeter and surrounding fields for hours without finding anything.  You would just be going over the same ground again.”  She raised her hands to rub her face, running her fingers back through her hair before she spoke again, “It’s the same as every other disappearance we’ve investigated.  Gone without a trace.  No clues, nothing to follow, not even anything on surveillance.  It’s like they disappear without a trace.  Maybe we’ll find something on the surveillance vids now that we have a closer idea of where they were last.”<br/>The miserable Servant called in their lack of progress and when she finished her report, turned to Taly and held out her hand.  “Thanks for the assist.  Don’t worry, my team will continue searching until we find something, no matter how long that takes.”<br/>Talysin shared a look with Haria that was full of concern and returned the shake. She left to go find Kerri and go home.  She had never felt worse. It was terrifying to think that something had happened not long after she had seen the couple but it was even more terrifying to wonder what might have happened or is still happening to them.<br/>When she makes it back down to the platform, she tells Kerri everything that happened and they continue to discuss the events until they arrive home.  Talysin reminds Kerri to meet her for their run in the morning before stepping off the lift and heading for her door.<br/>Trudging in the door, she feels heavy with the weight of sadness for the many people who have disappeared.  It’s late, and all she wants to do is take a bath and go to bed but when she turns back from shutting the door she sees her family all seated around the dining table with worried expressions.  ‘Of course, Dad probably knew what happened at the Arcade and told them,’ she thinks to herself.  They were all turned to her as she walked through the kitchen and came to a stop next to the table.  Nobody spoke or moved for several seconds.  Then, Kaldon stood and came around the table to embrace her.  He hugged her tightly, “We heard.  We were scared it was you and Kerri until Dad was able to reach us. I’m so glad you guys are safe.”  He stepped back and Taly realized the whole family had circled around and were touching some part of her.  Feeling the comfort from her family eased a little of the heavy feeling in her chest.<br/>“I’m sorry you were worried, if only for a little while.  It’s disturbing that this would happen at all and that we don’t know why but I trust that we will find everyone who has gone missing in time.  Let’s just hope they’re all returned safely.” She tried to put as much confidence in her words as she could, if only to try to convince herself, because the fact that there were no leads and no clues at all didn’t bode well for the investigation.</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next few days passed in normal fashion, except for the fact that the nightmares were getting more vivid.  Now she could hear voices in the shadows and the shadows themselves were more distinct.  There was an echo of the voice that belonged to the hand but the only thing she could understand was the voice calling her name.  The investigation into the disappearance at High Life was continuing but no leads had been found.  Talysin went to work every day.  She wanted to make sure nothing happened to any of the campers in her section so she would make her rounds two or three times a day.  <br/>Most of the families had left since news of the disappearance but there were still the honeymooners and one family of six.  Taly had tried to convince them to come inside Town Ash but the honeymooners made a valid point.  Since there was no way of knowing what was causing people to disappear and location didn’t seem to have anything to do with it, they were just as likely to be in danger there as where they were.  They refused to live in fear. Talysin respected that but the dread in her gut refused to dissipate. <br/>On the third day, she was on her way to make her first round of checks around 10 AM.  It was another beautiful day with a light chill on the breeze as she sped towards the first site.  She could hear bird song over the hum of the engine and felt peaceful for the first time in days.  <br/>She came over the last hill before the campsite and let her runner coast into the campsite before setting down.  None of the occupants were around so she checked the log box and saw no new messages.  She left her own message that if they needed anything she would be returning later in the day to check on them again.<br/>She got back on her runner and headed over to the honeymooners camp.  When she arrived at the site, again she found that no one was there.  Here however, there were signs of struggle, and overturned camp table, ash from the fire scattered all over, and the inflate-a-tent punctured and flattened over the furniture inside.  <br/>Panic spiked through Talysin, heart rate jumping and she began to tremble.  She pulled up the vid-comm at the same time she hit the emergency button on the runner.  The button would alert anyone in range that help was needed while she waited for the main office to respond.  It only took a few eternities for the comm to be picked up and when she saw Jodan on the other end, Taly almost cried in relief.  “Jodan we have a problem.  Site 312 is trashed and nobody is here.  Site 289 didn’t have anyone there either.  The logs at 289 didn’t show any activity all day and I haven’t checked 312 yet.  Jodan you need to get people out to every site as soon as possible,” she said, trying to remain calm and watched Jodan typing away furiously.<br/>“Okay, Taly.  It’ll take me a little while to get there but I’ve got 6 Servants on their way to your site and the rangers are heading to their sectors. Stay put for now and they’ll be to you shortly.  We’ll figure this out. Okay?” He tried to sound as reassuring as he could.  He still had to coordinate efforts to get everyone where they needed to be but he was worried because Talysin’s normally tan skin is too pale.  “Taly, I’ve gotta go but if you need me, call.  I’ve gotta get everybody organized here.”<br/>Talysin nodded and said “Yeah, of course, let me know if I’m just being paranoid, huh?”  She lets out a pinched, nervous little laugh and ends the comm. She dismounts the runner and begins walking around the campsite.  Maybe this was just a fight the new couple had that went too far and they left.  Maybe this was all just an overreaction because of what happened at High Life.  Maybe she had let every one of the citizens she was responsible for down by not being vigilant enough.  Talysin walked over to the log terminal and found no logs since her own the night before. <br/>Shaking her head she begins searching in a grid, starting with the ashes from the fire.  In the ashes she sees a standard issue hiking boot print and a print of something she can’t quite recognize.  It doesn’t look to be the same kind of tread as a hiker but she can’t be sure because it’s smeared from the force of the movement the foot was making at the time.  She takes out her vid recorder and captures the images all around the camp.  She finds another partial print by the overturned table and the inflate-a-tent seems to have been punctured by a stick, other than that not much else to go on.  <br/>The Servant Soldiers show up as she’s finishing examining the tent.  “Hey, glad you’re here. Didn’t know what else to do, so I’ve been taking vids.  There are a couple of partial tracks by the fire pit and beside the table,” she says as she hands over her recorder.<br/>The lead Servant accepts the device and hands it back to one of the others.  “Can you tell me anything new?”<br/>Talysin shakes her head, “No, both sites I’ve been to this morning were deserted and this one was like this,” and she waves her arm in a wide circle to indicate the whole clearing.<br/>He nods once, having expected the answer but hoping for more.  “Well, if you want to head to site 332 and check there it would be much appreciated.  Someone was supposed to have been setting up early this morning and they haven’t checked in yet,” he says with grim optimism. <br/>She pats him on the shoulder as she walks back to her runner and cycles it up.  She scans the clearing one more time before turning towards her next assignment.<br/>When she gets to 332 she doesn’t see anyone and thinks to herself, “Not another one.” Talysin sets down the runner and dismounts as she calls out, “Hello! Is anyone here?” She starts walking over to the log terminal and hears someone walking up behind her.  She spins while dropping to a crouch, catching the person at the ankles and drops them.  She stands back up ready to pounce and looks down to see a guy with dark hair, covering his head with his arms and trying to curl into a ball.  “Oh shit, I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” and she kneels down beside him quickly and continues, “Where are you hurt?”<br/>The guy tentatively lowers his arms and straightens up, still looking a little dazed and rubbing his shoulder now that he feels he’s not in any immanent danger, “Geez, what the hell was that for?  Yeah, I landed on my shoulder but it doesn’t feel broken just bruised,” he said while gingerly poking at his shoulder.<br/>Talysin sits down next to him and runs a hand over her face, “I am so sorry,” she says again.  “We’ve had some trouble today and I thought someone was sneaking up on me.  There’s been more disappearances and I overreacted.  I need to get you back to Ash, not just to keep you safe but now to get that shoulder looked at.  Have you seen anything strange or unusual this morning? What’s your name?”  She feels terrible about knocking him down and hurting him but she also needs to know if he saw anything.<br/>His eyes go wide when she mentions more people have gone missing and he begins to understand her reaction.  “Damn, no wonder you attacked first, I get it.  No reason to be sorry.  I’m Derkin, nice to meet you.  I haven’t seen anything this morning but I did hear a loud vibrating noise as I was getting here.  Were there any med-evacs this morning? Like, did anyone get hurt? Because it sounded like a hov-carrier taking off…” he trails off he notices the confused look Talysin gets.<br/>“Thanks Derkin, not that I know of but I will check.  Is there any way you can start packing up? If not, I can do it after I report that you’re here.  We need to head back as soon as possible.”  Talysin clambers to her feet and walks back over to the runner starting a comm.  When she has a connection she reports, “Derkin at 332 is, relatively, okay.  He hasn’t seen anything but he did say he heard what sounded like a hov-carrier earlier this morning.  Has anyone been evac’ed?” she says to the Tonya, one of the supervisors over Jodan, who answered the line. <br/>Tonya looks slightly frazzled as she checks the logs before shaking her head negative, “No Taly, no med-evacs this morning.  What do you mean relatively?”<br/>Talysin looks away from the screen and back over to Derkin.  “I, uh, kind of, knocked him down when he came up behind me.  His shoulder is hurt so I’m going to be bringing him in with me.  Is there anywhere else I’m needed before I head back?” she says looking back at the screen.  <br/>With a shake of her head again, she requests, “No we actually need more hands here to take in reports.  Every ranger is out at this point.  We could use you on the comms and I’ll brief you when you get back.” Her tone was deadly serious and it almost brought the panic back to Taly.  She’d been so focused on having something to do that it had faded but now was trying to claw back up her throat.  <br/>Taly nodded and signed off.  She turned back to Derkin, who had everything almost packed back into his backpack.  She nodded at him and said, “Let me make a quick log and then we go back to Ash.  You can stow your pack on the runner so you don’t have to put it on,” she pushed a button on the dash of the runner and the seat lifted up showing a storage compartment that contained a med-kit and some tools, but was mostly empty.  She then went to the terminal and typed in a quick log before returning to the runner.  After she checked the pack to make sure it wouldn’t shift too much in flight she closed the compartment. “You ready, Derkin?’ she asked.<br/>He nodded and climbed on behind her on the runner.  Talysin cycled up and they started the ride back to town.<br/>When they arrived at the hanger for the Forest Patrol it was a scene of organized chaos.  Talysin had never seen so much activity in the small space.  There were monitors set up all around the office, each with a different terminal, being manned by Servants and Ranger supervisors. As soon as she set the runner down a medical team stepped up to help Derkin off and Talysin retrieved his pack from inside.  They led him off as Talysin went to check in with a supervisor to see where she was needed. <br/>Tonya was standing in front of one of the terminals, alternately talking to rangers reporting in and checking logs from the last 24 hours.  When Talysin walks up to her, Tonya doesn’t acknowledge her for almost a minute.  When she stops long enough to notice Talysin standing there she breaths out harshly.  “Good, you’re back.  I need you to stay at this station and continue to take in reports.  So far we’ve had rangers report in from half the sites and haven’t found anyone that was there overnight.  58 people so far,” Tonya seems to deflate before Talysin’s eyes.  Tonya looks at Talysin with her deep blue eyes and says in sorrow, “We’re still hoping some are just away from the sites but it’s not looking good.  We’ve found two more with signs of a struggle like site 312.  Keep me posted if they find anyone else, please.<br/>For the next hour Talysin takes report after report but they’re all the same.  When all the sites have been checked the final count is 216 missing citizens.  How could this happen without any one of them sending an alarm?  One camper who arrived to his site this morning like Derkin reported hearing the same sound of a large transport cycling up.  He didn’t know anything else.<br/>After the last site had been checked, Tonya called all the rangers back in.  One by one they returned each looking broken and dejected.  This was a massive tragedy for their entire unit.  It was there job to protect the forest and those spending time in it and they had failed on a massive scale.<br/>Tonya walked over to Talysin as things were starting to clear out.  Most of the rangers had already made their final reports and left to find what comfort they could.  Tonya sits next to Taly and says, “I know you are probably ready to get out of here but the head of SS wants to see you.  He’s already gotten statements from the two campers who heard something and now he wants to get your impression on site 312. You feeling up for that?” she asks gently.<br/>Talysin sighs. She had been hoping to leave and go home and lock herself in her room with Seanan to try to process some of what she was feeling but she wanted to do everything she could to help the investigation so she nodded, “Yeah I’ll go over now.  I don’t know anything more than I already put in my report though.”  <br/>She stood to leave and before she could step away, Tonya grabbed her hand.  “Talysin, I know you feel strongly that whatever happens in your sector is your responsibility and in most situations you have every right to feel that way but this isn’t one of them.  There is nothing you could have done differently.  You were more than diligent in trying to watch over the campers in your sector and you’ve logged more hours this week than any other two rangers combined.  This isn’t on you,” she says with her voice full of compassion and sincerity.  “It’s not your fault.”<br/>Talysin has to clamp her jaw tight, she doesn’t know if she wants to snap at Tonya or cry into her arms but she stifles both impulses.  She decides to do neither and just nods before walking away towards the SS offices.  <br/>When she reaches the office she knocks and hears an answering “come in,” from the other side of the door.  She walks in and stands in front of the desk until she is motioned to sit.  The man behind the desk, Harold, is her father’s supervisor.  She has known him for years.  The happy, jolly face she is used to seeing is worn, almost haggard.  It’s been a hard day on everyone, it seems.  <br/>“It’s good to see you, Talysin, but I wish it was just for dinner instead of this mess.”  He sighs and looks at her with troubled, hazel eyes, “I’ve heard and seen the reports but I just wanted to hear your first impression since you were on the scene.”  <br/>Talysin looks back at him for a long moment before beginning to describe the site she came to this morning.  The partial prints that were unusual to her.  The stick puncturing the tent.  She also described the attitude of the couple.  This was new information to Harold and he added it to his notes.<br/>Harold asks, “Do you know why they were so sure they wanted to stay?  I mean other than wanting privacy?”  He leans his elbows on the table with his hands clasped in front of him.<br/>Talysin shakes her head, “Not really, but I had to warn them.  I’ve had a sick feeling for a while now, and the closer the disappearances come to here, the more the feeling intensifies.  It’s like my insides are twisting into knots.”  Talysin runs her hand over her face, a familiar sign of exhaustion that Harold knows well.<br/>He stands and moves around the desk to take Talysin’s other hand as he squats down next to her chair.  “Look, I know this has been rough on you, so I want you to go home. Relax with your family, let them take care of you for a while.  I’ll even send Dathen home with you.  You both need a recharge after the day we’ve had.”  He watches her face to guage her reaction.<br/>“Yeah, I think you’re right, Harold.  I’ll find Dad and we’ll both go home.”  She shows him a small tired smile to ease his worry and stands to go for the door.  <br/>He stands as well and closes the door after her.<br/>Once she finds her Dad they head home together, taking the lift up to their floor. <br/>The whole way up all Talysin can think about is finding the people she failed.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Talysin comes downstairs the next morning, it seems most of the family is already up and moving for the day.  Noni is reading out lines of what is coming in on the newsfeed out loud, “The council has just released some new information, apparently there has been even more disappearances in the Free Market States than the Townships,” as her cousins are tying on their boots and her dad is shoving toast in his mouth.  Taly has never seen her family this energized in the morning except for Festival days. Taly’s mom is making toast and serving steak and eggs onto plates on the counter, and her uncle is hurrying down the stairs.  Before Taly can even make her presence known her Dad is already out the door.<br/>Eventually, her mom looks up and notices her standing there.  “Good morning, Honey.  Do you want some breakfast?” she says while holding up the pan of eggs.  Talysin shakes her head in the negative and at the confusion on her face her mother’s smile fades a little.  Gwen, Talysin’s mom, cuts her eyes over to Leah, who is sitting closest to where Talysin is standing.  Leah gets the hint and reaches around to pull Talysin down onto the couch beside her.  <br/>Talysin is slightly startled as she bounces sideways on landing on the cushion.  Leah pats he knee before saying, “Surprise, Town Ash is up in arms this morning.  Literally.  Harold announced this morning that anyone who wanted to receive Servant Soldier training would be deputized immediately.  They’ve had over 6,000 applicants this morning.  Now they are saying that at least some people need to man their regular jobs and if there aren’t enough volunteers they will actually assign shifts to everyone.” Leah was talking a mile a minute, almost rambling.  Taly thought this is probably the most terrible tragedy but most exciting thing that has happened to Noni since she met Simon.<br/>Thinking she hadn’t heard quite right Talysin asks, “What do you mean?  They’re signing up anyone willing to help with the investigation?”  Talysin thinks her head might explode from the chaos this could cause.  Untrained and over eager volunteers could actually wipe out any evidence left behind at the scenes but she had to admit it could help in preventing more from happening.  Torn over her reaction she only gapes at her grandmother.  <br/>Leah nods emphatically and shows the current news feed to Taly.  “Yep, and the number is still climbing.  With this many eyes out we won’t have anyone else going missing,” she says with a whoop.  <br/>Taly shakes her head and smiles.  She stands after hugging her grandmother with one arm and says, “You’re right, Noni, but that means I gotta go.  I want to check something out that I thought of last night.”<br/>Her mom walks over at that point and lays a hand on her arm, “What thought, hun? Something about the disappearances?”<br/>“Yeah,” Talysin says, “but I need to get out to the site and check it before these knuckleheads get out there and disturb anything.  I’ve gotta go, Mom.  If I’m right I’ll call Dad or Harold.”  She goes to put on her shoes and watches as her cousins share a look.  <br/>Baylin sounds slightly offended as she asks, “What do you mean disturb anything?  Don’t you think it will help having more eyes looking for information?” She stands up from the bench and crosses her arms as she waits for Talysin’s response.<br/>“I think having more eyes is a great idea.  It’s the hands, feet, and other parts I’m worried about.  Even people who work in the forest all the time can erase something that needs to be seen if there are too many bodies in one place.  I just want to go out there while it’s still fresh so I can check my theory.”  Talysin finishes tying up her shoes and grabs a jacket.  This early in the morning there’s still a chill in the air and she wants to drive fast to get there before anyone else.<br/>Kayla, who works in the engineering department nods her head as she’s putting on her own jacket. “I know what you mean, Taly.  Sometimes it’s easier to do something that’s delicate by yourself because you know where all the pieces fit and if someone else is helping they may not be working in the same order as you and you get in each other’s way.”<br/>Pulling her dark hair out of her collar and checking her pockets to make sure she has everything, Talysin says, “Yeah, exactly.  Bay, it’s not about not wanting the assistance, the forest is just pretty unforgiving of mistakes and that many bodies in one place is just asking for things to be covered up without anyone meaning to.”<br/>Her mom has come closer at this point and looks worried. “So you’re going out there on your own?”  <br/>“Yeah, but only because it’s my sector.  Carter and I know that area better than anyone else because we’re in it all the time.  Look, if I see Carter I’ll bring him along to check out the site with me.  I’m hoping to find out what kind of transport our people are being taken with.  One of the campers I found said he heard what sounded like a transport taking off,” Talysin looked at the clock before giving her mom a quick hug.  “I really have to go.  I’ll see you guys tonight.”  She turns and hurries out the door before they can continue asking questions.<br/>The lift is full of people going down, most of them talking excitedly about being able to help out in the search for the missing citizens.<br/>They all get off at the SS office’s floor still questioning what training they’ll get and which sectors they may be assigned to. Talysin shakes her head as the lift goes down one more floor to let her off outside the Forest Patrol hangar.  She walks through the door and notices that it’s not as busy as yesterday but there’s still more Rangers than normal running around.  She walks over to the office and knocks on the open door jam.<br/>“Hey boss, is Carter here this morning?” she asks in lieu of greeting.  <br/>Tonya spins in her chair and looks at Talysin.  “Uh, yeah, he was in earlier but already headed out.  How are you feeling this morning?” she asks.  <br/>Talysin leans her shoulder on the door frame and crosses her arms, without looking Tonya in they eye she replies, “Better than last night. I’m going to head over to 312 this morning.  Could you ask Carter to come join me?”<br/>“Sure, Taly.  Be careful out there.  We still don’t know who’s taking people or how they’re doing it, OK?” Tonya looks like she barely slept last night but her eyes shone with determination as she says, “ With all these new recruits it’ll be faster and safer gathering information.”<br/>“I will be and yeah never hurts to have more help in a crisis,” Talysin replies with a nod before turning around and going to her runner.  She checks the guages and unhooks the power and tiedowns before climbing on and cycling up the power.  Pulling out slowly so she focuses on not hitting any of the rangers who are standing back to let her pass, Taly drops out of the hangar and heads into the forest.<br/>She makes good time getting to site 312, where Carter is already waiting for her.  His dark chestnut hair flutters in the wind made by her runner as she sets down near him.  Climbing off her runner at the same time he does, she walks over to greet him.  “Sorry to pull you off what you were doing.  I have a gut feeling that we missed something here and I could use another pair of experienced eyes.” she says looking around.<br/>“What do you think we’ll find?  The servants went over the whole site already and didn’t find anything more than you did, at least from what I saw of the report,” he says doubtfully.  He follows Talysin’s gaze, taking in the scene around the site that hadn’t changed since yesterday.<br/>Talysin shakes her head, “I don’t know but there’s something more here.  I want to widen our search.  Circle around in the forest.  The camper I found said he heard a transport and if that is what whoever is doing this is using to take our people then we might be able to see which direction they went.” <br/>Carter nods, “Okay, I will look through the west side and you take the east.  I’ll let you know if I see anything, yeah?”<br/>Talysin gets back on her runner and so does Carter.  They head in opposite directions and start making half circles around it in a widening pattern.  After about 15 minutes, Talysin notices that there’s a coating of dust on the bushes and bark of trees around her. She sets down and walks over for a closer look.  She sees that the layer of dust is thicker on one side of the bushes than the other and moves towards the thicker side.<br/>She follows along the path until her foot drops unexpectedly.  On the ground there is a deep imprint but not of a foot this time.  This looks like a rounded rectangle with treads on it.  Similar but not the same as a hov-carrier would make.  She continues circling around the area and finds five more imprints.  “So a very large carrier,” she thinks.  She goes back over to the runner and calls for Carter.<br/>“Hey I found what looks to be a landing site for a carrier but it doesn’t look like it was one of ours.  I’m about 30 meters north east of the site.” Cater says he’ll be right there before disconnecting.  While she is waiting she contacts Tonya and lets her know their location and what they found.  <br/>“Good job, I’ll send a team out there right now to help you look more.  Who knows what we’ll find,” Tonya says, excited that they finally have a lead.  “Is Carter with you?”<br/>Talysin nods at the screen, “Yeah, he’s coming over here right now.  And here he is.”  Carter lands the rover and walks over to Taly, waving at Tonya on the comm. “Morning boss,” he says jovially.<br/>Tonya looks at them and says, “Be careful, you two.  Whoever is doing this may still be out there.” She closes the comm.<br/>Talysin shows Carter the dust and the imprints and he agrees that it looks like a larger version of their med-evac transports. <br/>She goes back to the edge of the ring she saw where the vehicle had blown up dust during take off.  Following it around the very edge of where the dust has settled on the bushes she passes an area where the dust doesn’t taper off.  She goes over to the other side and sees it is a noticable trail of thickened dust only in one direction.  She calls excitedly, “Hey Carter, come look at this.”  When he walks over she shows him the dust pattern she spotted.  Talysin hurries back over to the runner again and opens the comm.  <br/>“Tonya, hey again.  We found a trail of dust blowback leading away from the site!  I want to follow it.  Carter and I will lay markers to let the servants follow us,” she says, hoping Tonya will give them the go ahead. <br/>Her boss frowns.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Taly.  Wait for the servants and then follow it.  You and Carter can lead them better that way.”  Tonya doesn’t look like she wants them out there at all but knows that this is the best thing that has happened since this whole mess began.  “Carter, could you give us a minute, please?”<br/>Carter nods and walks to the other end of the clearing to give them some privacy.  After watching him walk away Talysin looks back to the screen her boss is on and braces herself for a lecture.  Instead Tonya looks at her with compassion, “Taly, I know you’re hurting and upset with yourself, but really, none of this is your fault.  This has been happening all over the world.  You put in extra shifts, you warned people of the dangers of staying out.  You did everything you could do and nobody can blame you for that, including yourself.”  Tonya pauses a moment to allow Talysin to process what she is saying.  Talysin had a habit of taking things to heart that were completely out of her control.  Not long after Talysin had left this morning, Tonya actually got a call from Taly’s mom warning her that Talysin seemed to not be handling the situation well.<br/>Hoping that by her silence Talysin was starting to calm down, Tonya says, “I need you to stay with Carter until the servants get there.  Please, just don’t head out on your own.”<br/>Talysin nods but feels like the request is tearing her apart.  She needs to do everything she can to find these people and waiting makes her feel like time is running out.  When she disconnects the comm, she turns to Carter, who had been listening.  “I know she said to stay put, but I can’t. I’m going to follow the trail and see if I can find where they are keeping everyone.”<br/>He shakes his head, “No, we should stay here.  Wait for the servants to arrive.  We can’t help anyone if we get ourselves captured too, Taly.  What is going on with you? You are usually the one keeping everyone else from going off half cocked.”<br/>“I don’t know,” she said but that was a lie.  She knew the dreams were telling her that she was needed.  She needed to find the captives, she needed to get to them.  Maybe then she would know who owned the hand saves her.  Talysin sighs before sitting down sideways on her runner.<br/>It only takes ten minutes for the servants to arrive, but in that time Talysin has gone from resigned to raging again.  When they arrive, she shows them the treads and the dust that has settled around the landing.  “I checked the logs yesterday and we didn’t have any units out to any of the sites the day before.  This shouldn’t be here,” she said trying to get them to see the same reasoning she had.  <br/>Once everyone was on the same page and agreed to follow the blowback trail, everyone cycled up and started away from the site.<br/>After about twenty minutes of following the well defined dust path, Talysin says to Carter over the hum of their runners, “The vehicle must have been flying pretty low to continue making dust clouds for so long, maybe that’s why nobody has seen them.”  She checks the map showing their location in relation to Town Ash, they were about 30 miles away to the south east and running perpendicular to the edges of the land the township had allotted for recreation.  <br/>Carter nodded, “I would say so.  All the sensors are set to monitor safe levels for flightpaths and wouldn’t even be looking at the ground.”  He raised his head, peering into the distance.  Reaching up, he tapped the enhancer on his helmet, “I see something ahead. I can’t tell what it is from this distance though.”<br/>Talysin could only see a dark shape far in the distance and shook her head, “Yeah, I see it, but its too far.”  She motioned behind her to Mark, who was the closest of the servants with them, and he nodded to show he saw it too.<br/>Within a few minutes they could tell that it was someone limping in the same direction they were going.  The closer they were, the more they could see the person was in bad shape.  Talysin could tell that they had long blond hair but with the way the person was holding themselves couldn’t tell if they were male or female.  She could tell the moment the stranger realized that they were being followed because they stopped moving and slowly lowered themselves to the ground.<br/>When they pulled up just a few meters from the stranger, Talysin could finally tell it was a woman.  Talysin looked at her and could feel her heart stop and then start beating again in triple time.  Talysin felt every inch of her skin start to tingle as she looked at her.  The woman was absolutely stunning.  Beautiful honey blond hair and delicate features, she looked back at Talysin with defeated light blue eyes.  Other than the blond hair, Talysin could see light skin that was reddening in the sun, and that the woman was wearing some kind of uniform that was dark grey that had insignias printed all over it.  She had her left leg extended out in front of her and Talysin could see that the knee was swollen and stretching the pants around it.  The woman was also cradling her arm and she had dried blood from a cut on her right eyebrow on her face.<br/>Talysin grabs her med-kit and jumps from her runner but before she can approach the woman, Jared, one of the servants, reached out and stopped her as Mark walked towards the woman.  When he was in front of her, effectively blocking Talysin’s view of the woman, he asked, “Miss, what happened to you? How did you end up out here?” He reached out to place a hand on her shoulder and the woman flinched back from him.  Mark’s eyes grew worried as he looked over his shoulder to motion Taly over slowly. “We have a medic with us, would you mind if she took a look at you?” <br/>The woman nodded her consent and Talysin approached cautiously.  She knelt down in front of the woman and when she looked into the blue eyes looking back at her she felt her heart clench.  There was fear in those eyes.  Talysin wondered what trials the woman had been through to make her afraid of them.  “My name is Talysin and I’ll be as gentle as I can, alright?”  <br/>The woman responded with a nod again, still not speaking.  Talysin reached towards the wound on her head first.  There was a good sized lump under the cut but it looked as though the bleeding had stopped.  Talysin reached into her bag and brought out a cloth first and poured water from her canteen on it to start cleaning the blood away so she could tell how bad it was.  She gently cleaned around the wound and then pulled out a disinfectant to clean the cut.  The woman flinched several times and made sounds of distress during the process but once it was clean Talysin realized it wasn’t too deep.  She put an adhesive bandage on it to keep it clean and moved on to her arm.  <br/>Talysin gently pressed on her forearm and the woman immediatly gasped and tried to pull away.  Talysin raised her hands to show she wouldn’t do that again, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause you more pain.  We need to get you back to town so we can help you. That arm is most likely broken and the knee as well. We need to get you somewhere safe.” <br/>Talysin turned back to the others and caught Carter’s eye.  He nodded his agreement with her assessment and went back to the runner to grab some quick braces.  They weren’t as good as the ones from medical but they would keep the woman from experiencing too much pain on the way back to Ash.  Mark walked back over to his runner and asked for a transport to meet them on the way and let them know they’d found a woman badly beaten.<br/>While Mark was still on the comm, Carter brought the braces over and the woman flinched back from his approach slightly.  Talysin noticed and thought it odd that she would be frightened of Carter.  Carter cocked an eyebrow at Talysin as he handed over the braces and all Talysin could off was a slight shrug in return.  She turned back to the woman and said, “I’m going to slip the cuffs on your injured arm and knee so we can immobilize them until we get to help, ok?”  The woman looked slightly confused but offered her arm out to Talysin carefully.  <br/>Talysin very gently slid the cuff onto her arm and adjusted it to fit the length of her forearm before pushing a metal chip causing the liquid in it to harden and heat up.  The look of astonishment followed by relief that flashed across the woman’s face made Talysin curious as to where this woman was from.  As Talysin moved to put the other cuff over the woman’s pants up to her knee she asked, “You’re not from the Towns are you?”  <br/>The woman shook her head in response again but this time she offered, “No, I’m Illiana and I am most definitely not from your Towns.”</p>
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